


The Hat

by orphan_account



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Children, Bad Wolf, F/M, Friendship, Ten/Rose - Freeform, Ten/Rose as kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-26
Packaged: 2018-01-06 07:25:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1104061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Smith met Rose Tyler in a playground when they were eight years old, and he fell for her almost immediately - in whatever way an eight year old boy could. They both had blue notebooks, and he really liked her hat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hat

**Author's Note:**

> The inspiration for this fic came from a drawing of Rose in a wolf hat that I can't seem to locate. I'd seen a lot of young girls wearing hats like that recently, and I imagined a really young Rose wearing that hat and meeting the Doctor/John Smith.   
> This might be multi-chaptered - depends on whether anyone reads it and if I get inspired or not. If I add more chapters, they will probably be when Rose and John are a different age.

It was the last day of March when he first saw her. Sitting alone in a tree beside the playground, just hidden from the sight of the other children playing there, she was writing carefully and deliberately in a simple blue notebook, lower lip between her teeth as she paused to consider. Her eyes were a soft brown, almost the same color as her hair, and she had on a fluffy, dark brown wolf hat with long pieces of the faux fur hanging down on either side.   
John was utterly transfixed at the sight of her, and it took a few moments before he realized he had nearly stopped breathing. He shook his head and ran a hand through his unruly brown hair, only ruffling it more. On an impulse, he walked over to her tree and looked up at her.   
"Um, hi," he said quietly, trying to get her attention. The girl kept looking at her notebook, apparently not hearing him. "Hi," he said again, a little louder this time, leaning closer to the tree. There was a small gasp as she looked up, her eyes meeting his. She smiled a little.  
"Hi," she said shyly. John kept staring at her. "Um…did you want somethin'?" she asked.  
"Oh, uh…" John stuttered a bit, looking around and then fumbling with his bag. The girl smiled a little more widely at the sight of him, his small form seeming even skinner beside the huge brown leather bag on his shoulder.   
After a bit more searching, John pulled out a big blue notebook with a pattern that looked a bit like the panels of a door on the covers. Triumphantly, he showed it to the girl.   
"I've got a blue notebook too!" He announced, nearly dropping said item in his excitement. At this, the girl actually laughed, a real grin on her face now.  
"Yeah, you do," she said, pushing back a piece of hair from her face.  
"Um, d'you think I could…"  
"What?"  
"Uh…come up and sit with you?" John asked eagerly. "It's just that it's loud down here and I thought you looked lonely, and you shouldn't be lonely because you seem really nice, and I really like your hat," He added, rambling a bit and trying to explain after seeing the surprised look on her face.   
"Oh, you can come sit with me," she said. "It's just…No one's ever really noticed me up here before."  
Now it was John's turn to be surprised. "Never ever?" he asked as he pulled himself rather awkwardly up into the tree to sit on a branch beside hers. She shook her head. "I used to write down there, but the other kids always tried to make me play with them and steal my hat," she said, ducking her head and tugging possessively at one of the ears on the hat. "I'd have to run to get it back, and I don't really like runnin'."  
"That's mean of them," he said. "They shouldn't do stuff like that, especially not to you." She looked up at him quickly.  
"Why not to me?"  
"Well, because you're brilliant," he said without thinking about it. "At least, I think you are. From what I know of you. Well, I don't really know you, not yet, but I'd like to, because I think you're brilliant. So far, you seem brilliant. Not that you won't seem brilliant if I know you better, but…" He trailed off as he saw another hesitant smile on her face.  
"You really think I'm brilliant?"  
"Yeah. I do."  
"No one's ever said somethin' that nice to me before," she said softly.   
"They should," he replied, opening his notebook and digging his pencil out of the massive shoulder bag. The girl leaned back against the trunk of the tree. Both of them began to write again. After a little while, the girl closed her notebook and looked up towards the sky, deep in thought. John watched her as she watched the treetops swaying in the breeze.   
"What are you looking for up there?" He asked after a moment. She jumped a little, startled.  
"Oh, I dunno," she said. "Something new."  
John closed his notebook too, and watched with her. After a moment, he found himself staring at the girl again instead. Looking down at her blue notebook, he noticed something written on the cover.  
"Why does the front of your notebook say 'Bad Wolf'?"   
"I dream about it a lot," came the vague reply.  
"About what?"  
"Bad Wolf. Just those two words. Sometimes I wonder if it's maybe my name in another world."  
"What is your name?"  
Her eyes met his once more. "Rose," she said after a moment. "Rose Tyler."  
"I'm John Smith," he said, reaching out his hand. Rose stared at him for a moment, then took his hand slightly awkwardly, and shook it.


End file.
